Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Main Street

Mary Ann Cook

Los Gatos couple try to take triplets in stride

TRIPLE THREAT: If you are taking care of youngsters and think your lot is demanding, consider Stacy Hatfield. She is the mother of triplet sons and seems to handle the triplication capably, with generous doses of patience, quick reaction time and an especially big helping of humor thrown in.

Her husband Kent really takes things in stride and does as much parenting as she does. "We are both really mellow and don't sweat the small stuff," she says. "We let the boys settle their own differences as much as possible." Both the Hatfields are sheet-metal workers and met at sheet-metal school.

Stacy worked the swing shift until recently. They live in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Lexington Reservoir. The triplets are Luke, Brad and Charlie in order of birth and have just turned 2.

The boys are exceptionally active and can climb most anything, including a 5-foot-tall fence in the living room. The fence was installed to protect the trio from the wood-burning stove and to prevent them from climbing up on the piano. A futile gesture, says their mother ruefully.

Charlie learned to climb the fence very shortly, and where he goes, the others follow. Though Charlie is the biggest risk-taker, he's also, being the smallest, picked on the most. Brad is the most cautious, checking things out before he makes his move; and Luke is the most volatile emotionally, laughing a lot but also prone to tantrums.

The triplets have their own language: "ooh, ooh" means come look; "ga" is for pointing out something new on the scene such as a cat; "ee" is "what's that"?

ENCHANTING GARDEN: A Los Gatos garden will be featured in the September issue of Sunset. The garden is that of Chris and Tom Gaspich and was designed and executed by Keeyla Meadows of Albany, a nationally known designer and a friend of Chris.

Meadows even designed all the garden accessories--the painted wooden bench shaped like a butterfly, the large pots containing wisteria, the tile inserts in the river-rock patio, the lily-pad-shaped iron stools for taking one's ease. The color scheme is white, yellow and lime green, the hot new color in garden decorating, and plants and accessories obey that theme.

For instance, the flowers involved include lime-green zinnias called "envy." Then there are white and yellow weigela, yellow cosmos, dinner plate dahlias, white impatiens, day lilies, feverfew and variegated grasses. "It's very whimsical, has an Alice in Wonderland feeling," Chris says.

Both the Gaspiches are self-described "hard-core gardeners." "It's very therapeutic," reports Chris. When they bought the house 14 years ago, they also inherited the tradition of hosting the Fourth of July block party, a tradition they have maintained and nurtured. July 4 was the deadline set to finish the much-photographed front garden.

Bella, 11, is the third member of the household. Tom is a stockbroker who manages the Everin office in San Jose; Chris is a graphic designer under her maiden name, Chris Owens. The garden's fame has already spread. An English photographer took photos of it recently for possible sale to an English magazine.

Other Los Gatans, Lisa and Charlie Kleissner, also have a Meadows-designed yard, but theirs is a riot of color, unlike the limited palette of the Gaspiches'.

VETS RETURN: Veterans of the Italian Campaign of World War II will return to Italy Nov. 8-17 to mark the 55th anniversary of the Allied landing at Salerno and the drive to Rome. The tour will visit London, Naples, Anzio, Nettuno, Cassino, Sorrento, Capri and Rome.

Veterans of the third division [10th, 34th, 36th, 45th, 88th, 91st, Mt.] and support groups are urged to contact Sy Canton at 465 Shore Road. 7-P, Long Beach, NY, 11561 or call 516/432-3022

RIFLING THROUGH THE MAIL BAG: Mair David wants a few additions to the item about the June fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. The event was called Relay for Life (not Walk for Life) and was conducted throughout the night at the Los Gatos High School track. An earlier column item mentioned the locale, but the American Cancer Society was shortchanged by Main Street. Not by the relay participants however, who raised a substantial amount for their efforts.

My apologies to Virginia, the mannequin at the north end of town next to the BP station. She is wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. I had her outfitted in chinos. My memory is to blame, not her fashion sense.

Ed Carman would like to know when Highway 17 was renamed 880 through Los Gatos. Anybody remember?

Jonathan Schmuck appreciated column recognition for winning a scholarship but regretted that I omitted the fact that it was a Fulbright Scholarship. That info was in the paragraph heading, but since then I don't put crucial facts in headings without repeating it.

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